The big perceived benefit from Android Things is going to be security as they promise an infrastructure for IoT manufacturers to regularly push OS patches and security fixes.
We're releasing a Developer Preview of Android Things, a comprehensive way to build IoT products with the power of Android, one of the world's most supported operating systems. Now any Android developer can quickly build a smart device using Android APIs and Google services, while staying highly secure with updates direct from Google. We incorporated the feedback from Project Brillo to include familiar tools such as Android Studio, the Android Software Development Kit (SDK), Google Play Services, and Google Cloud Platform. And in the coming months, we will provide Developer Preview updates to bring you the infrastructure for securely pushing regular OS patches, security fixes, and your own updates, as well as built-in Weave connectivity and more.It's in developer preview, and I would guess it may be kind of rough going at the beginning. Google's been known to release developer tools that aren't super polished to see what works. They indicate that they have a "turn-key" solution for Raspberry Pi and Intel Edison. Anything that enhances IoT security is a good thing, but we'll have to see if it plays well with non-Google Cloud services.
